Ana Maria Martinez

• Soprano

Biography

The 2008-2009 season finds Ana María Martínez singing the title role of Luisa Miller and the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro with the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, and in summer concerts with Placido Domingo in Hungary, as a guest soloist at the Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, Italy and with Opera Pacific. Highlight performances include her role as Amelia in Simon Boccanegra with the San Francisco Opera, as Nedda in I Pagliacci with the Houston Grand Opera, and concerts with Placido Domingo in Las Vegas, Nevada and Chihuahua, Mexico. She makes her Dallas Opera house debut, singing the role of Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus and returns to Carnegie Hall to make her debut performance with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert singing selections from West Side Story as part of the celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Leonard Bernstein's birth. She kicks off 2009 performing some of her favorite roles with three house debuts: performing the role of Nedda in I Pagliacci with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, with the Opera Colorado as Fiordiligi in Cosi Fan Tutte followed by the Colorado Symphony performing Verdi's Requiem.

Highlights of her 2007-2008 season included performing the role of Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. No stranger to this role, a previous portrayal resulted in Hugh Canning of the London Times heralding Martinez as

"...one of the most vocally lustrous and temperamental performers of this role here since Kiri Te Kanawa's early days. Martinez is a beautiful woman with a fascinating voice, full of velvety mezzoish half-tints in the middle and bottom ranges, with a gleaming top. She must come back soon, and often."